4.0486 Numerology (4/75)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 14 Sep 90 17:09:01 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0486. Friday, 14 Sep 1990.
(1) Date: Thu, 13 Sep 90 13:53:11 PDT (13 lines)
From: cbf%faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU@lilac.berkeley.edu (Charles Faulhaber
Subject: Re: 4.0482 More Responses on Numbers
(2) Date: Thu, 13 Sep 90 17:06 EDT (22 lines)
From: Howell Chickering <HDCHICKERING@amherst>
Subject: 20 in the Odyssey
(3) Date: 14 Sep 90 09:41:00 bst (25 lines)
From: Kevin Donnelly <K.P.Donnelly@edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: Twenty
(4) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 11:29:23 MDT (15 lines)
From: "R. Jones" <HRCJONES@BYUVM>
Subject: Numerology
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 90 13:53:11 PDT
From: cbf%faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU@lilac.berkeley.edu (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: Re: 4.0482 More Responses on Numbers (2/53)
Aha! he said, as the lightbulb went on.
One of the caliphs of Cordoba (Abderraman III?) was said to have a
library of 400,000 volumes, a figure which has always struck me as
improbable in the extreme for the 9th century. But 400,000 meaning
'very large'--that I can buy.
Charles Faulhaber
UC Berkeley
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 90 17:06 EDT
From: Howell Chickering <HDCHICKERING@amherst>
Subject: 20 in the Odyssey
Beowulf carried 30 suits of armor on his arm during an extended swim. He
rules for 50 years. Epic retinues typically are numbered in multiples of
100 or 1000. Cf. the Song of Roland. While 20 in the Odyssey may
connect with the period of O's exile, the age of Telemachus, or the
Greek concept of a generation, Charles Ess's student might be given the
explanation that in Western European epics classical and medieval, round
numbers off the base 10 are used simply to indicate 'a large number' or
'a long time.' This is par- ticularly true for oral epics. If the
question had been posed about the AEneid, one would have to think about
Virgil's knowledge of Pythagoras and Duckworth's oft-disputed claim that
that written epic has a numerological basis (the Fibonacci numbers).
One is reminded of a cartoon of the 1950's in which Pogo asks Churchy La
Femme how many there are of something. The turtle replies, "Thousands!
Hundreds, even!"
Howell Chickering
Amherst College
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------39----
Date: 14 Sep 90 09:41:00 bst
From: Kevin Donnelly <K.P.Donnelly@edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: Twenty
The twenties system is used for counting in Scottish Gaelic. In a
similar manner to "quatre-vingt" and "quatre-vingt-dix" in French, the
only words in Scottish Gaelic for 30, 40, 50, 60, etc, are:
30: twenty and ten
40: two twenties
50: two twenties and ten (or half-hundred)
60: three twenties
70: three twenties and ten
80: four twenties
90: four twenties and ten
In church things are carried still further, beyond 100. The "134th salm"
is read as the "fourth-salm-teen past the six twenties".
In Irish Gaelic there are words for thirty, forty, fifty, etc, like in
English, but the twenties system is normally used for ages: "74 years
of age" would normally be phrased as "three score and fourteen years of
age", or "four-years-teen and three score".
Kevin Donnelly
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 11:29:23 MDT
From: "R. Jones" <HRCJONES@BYUVM>
Subject: Numerology
On the topic of numerology, does anyone know anything about the
significance of a duodecimal system among Germanic cultures? The fact
that the numbers eleven ("one left") and twelve ("two left") are
formed differently than the numbers thirteen and beyond (simply based
on existing lower numbers) might suggest that a twelve-based system was
once in use.
Randall Jones
Brigham Young University
R.L. Jones